DeKalb County

Missing Filipino mother may be in 'serious danger'

By Liz Artz
By Liz Artz

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The local Filipino community is turning to social media to generate leads in the disappearance of a mother.

Willy Blanco with the Filipino-American Association of Atlanta talked to Channel 2’s Liz Artz Monday about the Atlanta Pinoy Facebook page.

Blanco told Artz the page has more than a thousand followers and he’s asking all of those followers to share the story of missing mother Cecilia Bustamante.

Chamblee police have been searching for Bustamante since Dec. 2, after a call came in from Maryland that she did not show up for a Thanksgiving Day celebration.

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Police say she did not leave on her own and they fear she is in danger or even worse. Blanco talked to Artz Monday about what he’s asking the community to do:

“Just reach out to all of your friends out there. People in social media groups, anybody who may know anything about her. They don’t have to be Filipino, it can be people from work, from Willy’s Mexican restaurant. She may have confided in them.,” Willy Blanco said.

Channel 2 Action News broke the story of her disappearance last week. Chamblee police Capt. Ernesto Ford told Artz they believe Cecilia Bustamante did not disappear on her own.

He thinks she is in serious danger.

Police say Bustamante had recently moved to a home in Chamblee off Meadowwood Lane, but had previously lived in the Lindbergh area.

Blanco created Atlanta Pinoy, he said, so local Filipinos would have a way to get to know each other. He said he’s only found two people from the page who knew the 42-year-old mother.

“This lady that knows her knows her a lot more than what she is saying right now. Hopefully she will come out and give us more information,” Blanco said.

Ford said the five weeks from the time Bustamante was last seen until they were notified by a family friend in Maryland is a big gap in time that could hurt their investigation.

“Just reach out to your friends, out there in any social group, anybody who knows anything about her and share it,” Willy Blanco said.

The community plans to hand out fliers to generate information in an effort to generate leads for police.

Cox Media Group

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